


Cover My Thoughts In Gold

by Latios



Series: Intertwined Destinies [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Akaashi puts up with a lot, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Kuroo decides to play matchmaker, M/M, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 15:59:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5381291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Latios/pseuds/Latios
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You got a Soulmate tattoo! Cool! Did you even know about it being there?”</p><p> Akaashi's shirt had pulled just a little bit down, and clear as day in an elegant font read the word “Bokuto” across his skin, shining metallic like freshly pressed gold. His stomach started turning. </p><p>“Horned owl?” One of his friends asked. “Weird.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cover My Thoughts In Gold

His first time seeing a soulmate tattoo is when he’s in his mother’s arms one night at the age of five years old. It’s late, and she’s just putting him into for the night, when he notices the faint light from the hallway glint off the skin of her wrist, and focuses in on the tattoo on her right wrist.

He can’t speak well enough to ask, but he holds her hand tightly to him, and traces the mark with his fingers, until she laughs and lets him hold her palm, pushing hair behind his little ear.

“That’s a soulmate birthmark, Keiji...You’ll get one too, someday soon. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they represent the person you’ll fall in love with.” She kisses him on the forehead, taking her palm back as his tight grip on her fingers goes slack, and she pulls the covers up to his chin, crawling into bed beside him, sitting on the covers. “Your father has one just like it, but of a symbol instead of a name, like mine.” She pulls his favorite book from the bedside drawer, and settles in as she flips open the cover. “Enough of that though--now then, about the story of Mr. Owl and his journey. Once upon a time…” She reads, and his talk of soulmates are quickly forgotten. 

~

It’s when Akaashi goes to school that he sees so much more talk about soulmates. It’s mostly the girls in his elementary class, gossiping about their parents’ marks and ones they’ve seen on their teachers’ arms and neck and sometimes legs--how ‘romantic’ it was to have somebody destined to be with.

Even with his young mind, he’s not sure if he’d call it so much as _romantic_. There could be a lot of hassle that came with a predestined partners, after all. 

His parents were soulmates, but all they’d done as of late was yell and fight and scream at each other. 

They were all too young to worry about this, anyway. And he had more important things on his mind, like focusing on his studies. Nobody had their own yet anyway, so what was the point of talking about it?

~

In fifth and sixth grade is when his classmates start to notice their own marks appearing. 

It wasn’t just one person, but quite a few people that started to get marks, and showed them proudly at any chance. 

Some people wore names, others symbols or patterns that could go from the size of a thumbnail up to a design cascading across limbs like a sleeve. 

Someone actually squealed and jumped up in their seat, rubbing frantically at their arm with a maniac smile as they disturbed the class. 

“Look!” she said, keeping everyone’s attention. “It happened! I got one!” And just like that, all her friends and their friends ran over like a flood, ignoring the teacher's direction just to examine the girls’ mark that suddenly appeared.

Akaashi glanced her way, but went back to his book. 

~

His mark appeared around the middle of junior high. 

“Woah,” his friend Ryota gasped, pointing just above his collarbone and at the base of his neck and beginning of his shoulder. His mouth quickly formed a smile, as Keiji tried to look at what he was seeing. He was expecting a bug, or maybe a piece of lint Ryota wanted to warn him to flick off, but--

“You got a Soulmate tattoo! Cool! Did you even know about it being there?”

Akaashi's shirt had pulled just a little bit down, and clear as day in an elegant gold font read the word “Bokuto” across his skin, shining metallic like freshly pressed gold. His stomach started turning. 

“Horned owl?” One of his friends--Kazuo--asked. “Weird.”

“At least that’s something to go on,” Ryota moaned grimly, leaning back in his desk and pulling up his sleeve. “Mine’s just a picture. How am I supposed to find the love of my life with only a _picture_ to show me the way?” There’s a little strawberry on his arm, pink and cartoony. 

“It could mean you meet her at a bakery? Or a restaurant? Who knows, man.” Kazuo laughs. “I’m honestly surprised you have a destined soulmate at all. Who would want to get with you?” He joked, as Ryota punched him in the arm. 

“So what’ll you do, Keiji?” Kazuo asks, turning back to him. “There’s a Wildlife preserve not far from here. Maybe your destined one is a worker there?” he suggest, eyebrows wiggling mischievously. 

“Or maybe they work at a pet store!” Ryota chimes in. 

“I don’t care,” Keiji breathes, feeling the nerves bristle at his skin. A few classmates are looking his way now, and he really doesn’t want more people coming at him and asking questions. It was such a bother over something so small. What were the odds of him meeting his significant other right now, anyway? It would be pointless to make guesses and look for them. He had more important things to do.

“Of course the guy who gets the biggest lead doesn’t care for the whole “romance” thing,” Ryota sighs wistfully. “It could even be a name, who knows?”

“Nahh,” Kazuo says, “Those are pretty rare. But it would be just our luck for someone like Akaashi to get a name, huh? But it doesn’t really sound like one...”

Keiji rolls his eyes and stands up, grabbing his violin case from beside his desk and making his way into the hall, the bell ringing not even a moment later. 

~

He covers it in the bathroom before his mom notices. He says at dinner that the bandage was to cover a scratch he got from his violin from holding it the wrong way, but her wary eyes don’t seem to believe him as she narrows her tired eyes and drinks her tea.

The house is silent other than the sound of their breathing, his own heartbeat in his ears, and the faint sound of the television in the other room.

It had been years since the house had been lively. Even when his father visits them, it’s just as--if not more silent.

His mother tries her best for Keiji, but he can see how sad she is, away eyeing his visible skin and asking if a mark had shown itself yet--Even now, her eyes look at the bandage skeptically, and he knows he can't keep it there for a cover for more than a few days at most before she becomes certain of what it is.

She eyes it sadly, and he focuses instead on his tea rather than the burning gaze trying to melt the the patch on his collarbone.

This alone was just another prime example why he doesn’t care for the idea of soulmates.

They don’t always work out, even if they’re destined. And he had solid proof of that, regardless of what his classmates liked to say about all the good it was, or how “perfect” the idea was.

He knew better than that.

~  
In his first year of high school, the clubs are all lined up, handing out applications and being loud about showing their enthusiasm for their clubs and sports.

He didn’t have time for a club. Not with violin lessons and his studies coming first and foremost. He just wants to go home and for the whole first day to be over; it’s too loud and--

There’s a hand pulling him back by the straps of his bag, and he’s toppling back, _back_ until there’s hands securing him by the shoulders, and he turns around with a glare, seeing who the perpetrator was.

“Whoa, sorry about that!” the guy shouts, right in his ear, sounding not sorry at _all,_ despite his words. He had weird, spikey black and white hair. It had to be gel keeping that up, right? Gravity didn’t work like that. _Hair_ didn’t work like that. His eyes are bright gold, seeping into his skin like brilliant molten fire with only one look. It kind of stuns him in his place, and he doesn’t immediately jerk away like he would have liked to.

 _Like an owl,_ is the first thing he thinks.

“Are you interested in joining the volleyball club?!” He asks, setting Akaashi back on balance with his footing as Akaashi dusts off his clothes with his palms. He tries not to sound annoyed when he replies: “No.”

“Awwh, why not?” The man pouts. _Pouts._

One of the other members smacks the guy with spikes on the head. “Chill it, Bokuto! You’re going to scare them away when you do stuff like that!”

_Bokuto._

He feels a full body shiver the seconds he hears the name, and the mark on his chest practically burns. He turns on his heel in one quick swoop, and almost _runs_ down the hall on stiff, frozen legs.

He hears more shouting, and a blurry “Did I do something wrong?” but ignores it, hiding in the washroom and catching his breath before returning back to class.

~

“How was your first day, Keiji?”

“Fine.” He replies, sitting down at the kitchen table and pushing his bag aside under the table as he sits down, maybe a bit too heavily.

But she knows him too well, being his mother and all, turning from her spot at the stove, watching him with one eyebrow quirked and a frown in those tired eyes. “It doesn’t sound fine. Want to talk about it?” She asks, a hand at her hip.

“It’s nothing,” he sighs, taking a deep breath and trying to exhale the memory of those sharp, golden eyes. Golden like his tattoo. the exact same colour, now that he thinks about it.

“You sure? You do like the school, right? Is it about a classmate?”

“...Something like that.”

Later, when he’s alone in his room and getting ready to start his homework, he finds a crumpled up volleyball poster shoved in his half open bag.

~

He doesn’t know why he’s here.

There’s balls hitting the floor, echoing across the gym from all places; One hits the floor right beside his foot and rolls along the wall. It’s chaos, with whistles blowing every five seconds and it smells like sweaty feet and it’s going to clog his senses for at least a week.

_Why is he here._

“Woah,” Someone calls, and Keiji’s head snaps in the direction of the voice. There’s a boy with dirty blond hair clutching a waterbottle and smirking at Keiji. “Come to join the club?” He asks.

He wants to say ‘No, I’m just looking,’ But ends up pulling the crumpled poster/sign up sheet from his bag.

“I’d like to sign up for the volleyball club.”

The others’ eyes widen slightly, and he yells at the other members of the club to come over. All the shouting and whistles and loud echoes of soft balls hitting the floor comes to a halt, and suddenly all eyes are on him.

And then--

“Hey! I saw you the other day!” He hears a familiar voice call, and turns to the man named Bokuto, smiling and pointing his way.

He swallowed before replying since his mouth has gone dry, but it feels like like there’s knots in his throat, too. There’s no _way_ he’s wrong about this. The hair. The eyes. The name.

He’s honestly not too concerned that it’s a man. He never really found an attraction to women, anyway, though it’s not like he’s ever said that out loud. He’s not sure what his mother would think. Or his father, for that matter. _If_ he ever found out.

But he’s a little concerned about joining a club with the guy--which he’s still not sure why he’s doing--joining a club with him, that is. It screams ‘bad idea’ in Keiji’s ears, but he can’t help but be curious, after all. He’s almost 100% sure this is the match to his tattoo, He almost instinctively knows.

“Hello,” He bows slightly, holding the signed form/poster out. “My name is Akaashi Keiji. May I join the club?”

There’s a slight pause, and then there’s laughter, and then he’s being slapped on the back--

“You don’t have to be so formal, You know?” Bokuto says, far too close to his personal bubble, and he can feel his breath on his ear, he’s that close.

He hopes he’s not making a mistake.

~

He likes volleyball much more than he anticipated. It was his parents who pushed him into classical music classes, and he thought he liked it. He did like it, actually--he just likes this so much more, and regrets not joining in Elementary, or Junior high, even.

But he’s good at it. It’s not what he expected, but he’s genuinely good at, and is promoted to a regular setter in the first three months of being on the team.

There’s only one problem. Bokuto.

Bokuto doesn't show Akaashi any acknowledgement that he’s figured out they’re soulmates within the last three months they’ve been working as a team together, An Akaashi doesn't know if he’s mistaken.

They’ve become friends... probably. At least--Akaashi knows him well enough. He figures it wouldn’t be that out of the blue to ask one personal question, and he won’t be looked at suspiciously for it. So one day, when they’ve been practicing setting and spiking for over an hour, Akaashi stops tossing the ball, until Bokuto’s eyes are trained on him. He takes a deep breath.

“Do you know if you have a soulmate, Bokuto-san?”

Bokuto blinks at him wordlessly, before Konoha cuts him off.

“Don’t bother asking him about that, ” Konoha calls from his right, stopping his passes and practice with Onaga as well. “He doesn’t have one, apparently.”

Akaashi freezes. _What?_

“I have two marks! one on my shoulder, and a mark on my ankle!” Sakurai calls

Konoha inspects his ankle which is jutted out into their field of view, and frowns. “I think that’s just a regular birthmark, Sakurai…”

“Really?”

They converse back in forth in a mindless chatter, but Akaashi is still stuck on that one bit of information. 

“You don’t have a soulmate, Bokuto-san?” He hopes he doesn’t sound as shaky as he feels. Was joining all for nothing? Was he just clinging onto the idea that they could be soulmates because of a coincidental first impression, or because of Bokuto’s name? There was always a chance that someone else could be named Bokuto, right? And not to mention it wasn’t even necessary a name, like his friends told him in junior high. It could have been about a horned owl, after all, no matter what he thought. Maybe it wasn’t about looks at all, and maybe their first conversation was just relating to owls. Maybe--

“Nope,” Bokuto shakes his head. He doesn’t look happy, but he doesn’t look sad, ether. He just shrugs. “I’ve never gotten a mark.”

“But that doesn’t mean you won’t get one in the future, right? how can you be so sure?” He knows he’s grappling for some kind of certainty, but it feels like the rug was swept out from under him, and he feels out of breath. He made a mistake, didn’t he?

“Nah, I’m pretty sure,” He waves off with a hand. “Everyone else on the team has one, and everyone else in my family got their before fifth grade, including my sister.” with a raised eyebrow, he asks, “Why did you want to know, Akaashi? Something bugging you?”

His mouth feels dry, and he spins the volleyball lightly in his palms. “Just curious,” he says, and they go back to playing.

~

He doesn’t quit the volleyball club, or do anything drastic. Curiosity may have been what got him into the volleyball club of fukurodani academy, or more specifically, learning more about Bokuto Koutarou-- but he truly does enjoy the sport.

Now his only problem is feeling a bit empty, like he didn’t know for sure about who he was destined with when he thought he might have, and it leaves him wondering. What are they like? _And will he like them as much,_ he thinks as a side thought.

~

A few more months pass by, and It’s mid summer. He meets Kuroo for the first time when their teams have a school enforced meetup for practice together, and Bokuto instantly throws himself against the tall, dark haired man, and they twirl around until they fall, like a bunch of kids.

He raises a brow and watches the situation from afar, but doesn’t say anything. Is this the guy Bokuto liked? After a hug like that, he’s not sure what he just saw…

“Akaashi!” Bokuto calls, and he feels his face fall deadpan as he walks over to the two lumps on the ground, laughing as they untangle.

“What is it,” Akaashi sighs.

“This is Kuroo,” Bokuto points. Kuroo points to himself with a sly grin. “Hi. Bokuto’s told me quite a bit about you.”

Akaashi doesn’t know what to make of that, doesn’t know if he _wants_ to know what that means, and turns to Bokuto as he begins speaking again.

“Kuroo is my bestest friend--along with you of course, Akaashi, and he’s Nekoma’s captain! Isn’t he cool?!”

“Sure,” Akaashi says, not really knowing how Bokuto defines ‘cool’. They did just tumble to the ground like children, after all.

“And that’s Kenma. Don’t be shy--say hi and stop playing your game, Kenma~” Kuroo coos, looking just past Akaashi’s shoulders.

He turns around, and almost jumps out of his skin when he realizes a boy is standing _right beside him_ , just taller than his shoulder or so. He’s playing a psp, Just as Kuroo had stated. He sighs, pushing the power off as he shoves the object in his pocket, and looks up at Akaashi with golden cat-like eyes and a slight frown, but if anything, it looks like he’s just tired. 

“Hello. You’re Akaashi, right?” He asks quietly, and Akaashi nods with a small smile. He feels like he’ll get along much quicker with Kenma, but it’s just a hunch.

~

The boys spend most of the day rotating between the other school signed up in the program, and only twice do they actually compete with each other. Fukurodani wins both times, But it doesn’t seem like much of a surprise to either team. Bokuto seems truly excited by it, though.

“Did you see me, Akaashi?! Did you see that last spike I hit!?”

“Yes, Bokuto-san,” He replies, taking a long sip from his water bottle. After a match like that, How can Bokuto still have energy to that extent? He truly wonders sometimes.

Bokuto wanders off, seeking praise from their other teammates, and Akaashi starts to lose himself in his thoughts, until Kuroo slaps him on the back, hard. He really needed to stop getting close to spikers.

“You did pretty good out there, newbie!” Kuroo laughs, and Akaashi has to crane his neck to look up. He didn’t exactly realize it until now, but he was pretty tall up close.

“Thank you,” He retorts calmly.

“Bokuto talks about you a lot, you know. I was excited to meet you for a while now, and I’m glad to see he wasn’t exaggerating. You’re really good at setting, you know?”

He blinks. Why was Kuroo telling him this? “You told me about that earlier, too.” He’s a little afraid to ask, but-- “What Does Bokuto-san say about me, if I may ask?”

“Nothing bad,” Kuroo smirks, and it’s a shit eating grin. He turns his head as a teammate calls him, and Akaashi can see the faint outline of a calico cat silhouette just under his ear on his neck. 

“Gotta go,” he sends him a grin, and leaves. 

Akaashi is a little suspicious, but doesn’t mention a thing. 

Later that night, when he’s talking to Kenma, he notices a small, black mirrored cat image of what he saw on Kuroo’s neck--on the back of Kenma’s left hand. He can piece the rest together, himself. Maybe he didn’t need to worry about Kuroo going after Bokuto, or being together with Bokuto, after all.

He grimly wonders when he got so clingy.

~

It’s the end of the summer week-long volleyball session, and There’s tears on Bokuto’s part when he has to say goodbye to his “bestest friend ever” Kuroo. They live five minutes away from each other, like Kuroo reminds him, and he sniffles his tears back up. Akaashi rolls his eyes. After saying goodbye to Kenma, He’s about to go and board the bus on his own, but he’s tugged aside by Kuroo, who somehow managed to get out of Bokuto’s killing grasp called a hug.

“By the way,” He says, close to Akaashi’s ear. “Did Bokuto ever tell you about his soulmate mark?”

Akaashi’s suddenly rooted to the spot, boarding the bus being the last thing on his mind. His mind is reeling. “What? He doesn’t have one, Kuroo-san.”

Kuroo smiles, holding a finger to his lips and a shit-eating grin pulling at his lips. “Yes he does, silly. But you didn’t hear it from me.”

He wants to ask _how he knows that_ or more importantly, _Why_ he knows that and Bokuto doesn’t, so he must be lying, right?

“Did you ever look at his back?” He says innocently, and struts away just as the coach honks the horn on the bus, calling Akaashi back to earth.

He slowly makes his way onto the bus, and ponders things.

~

They’re heading out for dinner as a team one night, all pushed into two measly booths and somehow Akaashi ended up with Bokuto only, and from other people’s perspective, it probably looks like a date, as Komi pointed out.

He’s more hungry than anything else, so he ignores the laughs of his teammates as they giggle about them in the booth over, leaning over the tops of the cushion seating to spy on the two. Eventually, They quiet down, when they realize Akaashi isn’t provoked by anything, really.

“So how’d you get into volleyball, Akaashi?” Bokuto asks, breaking the silence that looms like a thick cloud over their table.

He doesn’t really want to say the truth, that he wanted to get to know Bokuto better, but now he actually really likes it. Instead, he says, “We didn’t have assigned gym classes this year, so I wanted to choose a sport as an elective or club.”

“Oh,” Bokuto replies, eyebrows raising. “So this really was you’re first year of it? How do you like it?”

“I used to have violin lessons on weekdays, so yeah, it’s my first year of it.” Akaashi takes a bite of his onigiri, chewing before relaying his thoughts out loud. “And I guess? Being a setter is a lot more difficult than i originally thought, but it’s fun, too.” He takes another bite.

“Woooah, really?!” Bokuto laughs, way too loudly and attracting the attention of innocent bystanders who just want to enjoy their own meal. Akaashi refrains from rolling his eyes, or just walking out of the booth, altogether. “That’s so great to hear! I’m glad you’re enjoying it! Since, you know, I’m just as happy you’re here, too! The team wouldn’t be the same without you anymore, Akaashi!”

He tries to dull the fast and steady thumping of his heart, and hopes his face wasn’t warming over. “...How did you get into volleyball, Bokuto-san?” He asks, changing the subject.

The other pauses while humming for a moment, tapping his chin as he thought it over. “Well, I wasn’t into it at all to be honest. But then I met Kuroo in late junior high, and we quickly became the best of friends after meeting once!” Akaashi nods. He could definitely picture that. “And then he told me to start playing Volleyball in Junior high. He said he was into it, and if I played too, that we’d face off together at some point, probably. I don’t know. He really insisted on it, though!” He laughs, and finishes his soup. “I wouldn’t be here without Kuroo telling me to play, that's for sure.”

They finish their meal in silence and leave for the night, a lot of things on his mind. 

He was glad for Kuroo convincing Bokuto to play volleyball. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made Bokuto as a best friend, either. And soulmate assumptions aside, he was really proud to know Bokuto as a good friend, and nothing more.

~

It happens on one of the first training sessions after summer break. 

He and Bokuto are the only ones in the change room. Bokuto was always at this speed, while Keiji on the other hand was probably the quickest person to change, usually. But Kuroo’s words stuck in his mind since they were spoken, and he was now really curious if that so called “soulmate tattoo” really was on Bokuto’s back.

He creepily sneaks a glance over his shoulder, but drops all apprehension and just straight up stares at it when he sees it.

It’s...a volleyball? 

It was a pretty, gold, red, green metallic outline probably the size of his thumb, but it rested on his upper shoulder clear as day.

It occurs to him, once again, that Bokuto is stupid, and probably never thought to check his own back when looking for a soulmate tattoo. Kuroo (and maybe the whole team and possibly his family,) also knew, and were probably keeping it from him as a joke.

He isn’t going to ruin their fun, because it’s not hurting anyone. And Bokuto will probably find it. One day. Maybe.

~

**From: Unknown number (9:42pm)  
>Did you see it yet? >8))**

He eyes his phone with a half-hearted glare. He’s almost certain he knows who this is, but just to be sure, he texts back.

**To: Unknown number (9:43pm)  
>Who is this.**

**From: Unknown number (9:45pm)  
>1 guess**

He sighs.

**To:Unknown number (9:46pm)  
>Kuroo Tetsurou?**

**From:Unknown number (9:47pm)  
>Right you are!**

He rolls his eyes, but changes the contact name. He receives another message a moment later, just as he picked up his pencil to do homework again.

**From: Kuroo Tetsurou (9:49pm)  
>So did you see? ;)**

**To: Kuroo Tetsurou (9:50pm)  
>See what?**

**From: Kuroo Tetsurou (9:50pm)  
> You know what. His tattoo of course!**

he doesn’t know where this is going.

**To: Kuroo Tetsurou (9:52pm)  
>Yeah, I saw it. What about it?**

This time there’s a longer pause, and he actually manages to finish the math question he was having a hard time with by the time Kuroo replies. 

**From: Kuroo Tetsurou (10:01pm)  
>You know why I’m talking about this.**

**> I saw your tattoo, Akaashi.**

 

He almost turns off his phone. He wouldn’t dare tell Bokuto, right? What if he did, though? It wasn’t necessarily about him, but it could make things awkward, he’s sure, and--

**From: Kuroo Tetsurou (10:02pm)  
>B4 you freak out, I won’t tell him, dw**

**> You will though.**

like that’d ever happen.

**To: Kuroo Tetsurou (10:03pm)  
> No thanks. it’s probably not related to him, anyway.**

**From: Kuroo Tetsurou (10:04pm)  
> You’re joking, right?**

**> All he ever talks about anymore is you, ya know.**

**> And you saw his tattoo, right?**

**> It’s a volleyball**

**> Hey, Akaashi.**

**> What sport did you just join this year?**

 

His heart does that annoying stuttery thing again, and he types back with shaky hands.

**To: Kuroo Tetsurou (10:09pm)  
>that could be about anyone on the team**

**From: Kuroo Tetsurou (10:10pm)  
>You and I both know it’s not**

**> I told him to join volleyball when i saw the tattoo**

**> And you’re the first person in this club he’s even spoken more than twice about**

**> You know he’s not even into girls, right?**

**> How far in denial are you lol**

He flips his phone closed after that, and shuts it off for the night.

~

He wouldn’t call it ‘denial’, really. He loved Bokuto, whether it was only meant to be in a friend way or more, he wasn’t sure. His feelings got quite jumbled up after he was told Bokuto didn’t have a mark of his own, after all. He didn’t want to get too carried away when he didn’t feel sure of anything, anymore.

But yes, He loved Bokuto Koutarou.

“I have something to show you, mother.” He announces the next morning, just after descending from the stairs, waiting in the doorway of the kitchen. She turns to him with a knowing smile on her face, and says, “Yes, Keiji?” With a surprisingly light tone. 

He pulls down the collar of his shirt, just past where the mark lied. Surprisingly, he got away with keeping it a secret from her since it appeared. But really, his mother was smart, and he’s sure she knew anyway. But it felt right t finally show her. He wasn’t sure how she was going to feel about that other part, though.

“I see,” She hums, tracing the word with her finger and an airy smile. “Bokuto, is it?”

He nods. “I’ve met them myself.”

“‘Them’?” She asks, but seemingly already knows what he meant.

“...Him,” he says quietly, and lowers his head a bit. This is as far as he got in his head with this scenario before everything turned ugly. His mother could say anything to him right now. She could slap him in the face or scream and he wouldn’t be too surprised. He just announced he was gay, after all. He’s never exactly come out to a family member before this, so it was all uncharted territory from here.

But instead of anything like yelling or screaming or hitting, she pulls him in a tight embrace, and his muscles loosen as he sinks into the caring touch.

“Do you love him, Keiji?”

“...Yes.”

“Then what are you so worried about?”

“A lot of things,” He admits, and she rubs soothing circles on his back.

“Is it because things didn’t go well with me and your father? Or because it’s a man you’re soulmates with that it makes you nervous to share with me?”

“...both, sort of.” He admits again with a small shrug. She still doesn’t release him from her hold, and if anything, clutches tighter around him. When did he get so tall? She only came up to his chin, now…

“It didn’t work out with me and your dad for a lot of reasons,” She sighed, “It’s been years, and i’m not totally ‘over it’ but it was probably for the best in the end.

“I loved him far too much, and he felt the same, but that’s just where our problems began, you know? We cared too much about every little thing, and it led to fighting over the smallest misunderstandings. It doesn’t always work like that though, and I’ve seen how you distance yourself from the idea of caring about others sometimes for that reason, Keiji.

“But you shouldn’t worry too much about it. And next time talk your mother, okay? I worry about you a lot, and I’m not so weak that I can’t even talk about this stuff anymore!” She flexes her arm for show and goes straight back into the hug. “And bring _him_ over sometime too, will you? I want to meet your dream man,” She laughs.

“Okay, mom.” He replies, hugging her back all the more tightly. “I will.”

~

The next time he’s at Bokuto’s house after practice, he stands up off the couch from their television binge-session and urges Bokuto to do the same.

“Akaashi?” He asks, pausing the show and tilting his head to the side. “What is it?”

“Take off your shirt for a minute.”

“Akaashi!?”

“Just do it,” He huffs, becoming impatient.

Bokuto eyes him wearily, but complies, handing his t-shirt over and covering his nipples with his hands, like he was some girl covering up from being seen. Akaashi rolls his eyes. _This is the man I’m in love with,_ he reminds himself.

“...So what did you want me to take me shirt off for?” He asks hesitantly, as if he might not want to know the reason.

“Come with me,” He states, and Bokuto starts making nervous noises until he drags him to the family bathroom down the hall of his own home, and makes him stay in place. He grabs a hand mirror off the counter and hands it to him.

“Look at your back,” Is all he commands, and though Bokuto still looks a little weirded out, complies, as gasps when he sees it.

“Akaashi?! Do you see it?! Are you seeing what i’m seeing?!”

“I was the one to tell you to look, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, but…” He trails off in awe, looking from over his left shoulder and right shoulder, trying to find a better view.

“It’s a volleyball, right?” Bokuto asks, excitedly. “Wonder what that could mean!”

“Who knows,” Akaashi mumbles, small smile forming on his mouth as Bokuto keeps twirling and looking in excitement, and when Bokuto’s family comes home from shopping, yells at them from the second floor, urging them to look too. Just as Akaashi assumed, they already knew. 

~

He gets an incoming call on a late wednesday night, two nights since bokuto discovered his ‘new’ mark.

He groans and sits up, not even bothering to check the led clock on his nightstand; He knows it’s late, and doesn’t need to check to rub the time in his own face that he probably won’t be getting much sleep that night.

Begrudgingly, he answers the phone, eyes not even open. He holds the receiver to his ear.

“What the _hell_ , Akaashi.”

“Hello to you too, Kuroo.”

“I practically set you up with Bokuto, and now I find all you did was _show_ him his mark?! You were supposed to ask him out! I thought you were supposed to be the smart one! I love Bokuto, but he’s as dumb as a sack of bricks, you know that right? He’ll never know it’s you with a hint as obvious as that. You need to make it clearer than that, you know?”

“Are you done yet, Kuroo?” He asks, sighing.

“I guess so, yeah.”

“I only showed it to him so he can figure it out on his own. I don’t want to say anything about soulmates, because knowing Bokuto, he’ll take my word on it without even giving a single thought to his own feelings and where they lie,” He rubs the bridge of his nose, in hopes of soothing the oncoming headache he feels forming. “I want him to genuinely come to his own conclusion without feeling forced by fate or my feelings or anything like that. I don’t care if it takes a while.” He smiles. “We’ve got time. It’s okay.”

“...”

“Kuroo?” He asks. If that stupid cat hung up on him--

“I’m sorry. That does make sense. I’ll let you sleep now.”

“Thank you,” He sighs in relief.

“But before I go,” he interrupts. “I just wanted to say good luck. You might be confident, but you could be waiting a while. You know him, after all.” he huffs. 

He smiles sleepily. “I do. And that’s fine. Goodnight, Kuroo.”

“Goodnight, Akaashi.”

~

Everyone on the team knows Bokuto’s fated love to be was Akaashi. They sent him knowing looks from across the court every time Bokuto brought his mark up, and Akaashi just shrugged. He really meant it when he said he’d like Bokuto to figure it out for himself.

But sometimes Bokuto gets moody. The overthinking is affecting his skills in court, and often he’s feeling dejected much, much earlier than when his usual moods kick in.

Everyone leaves Akaashi to deal with the aftermath. It is sort of his mess, after all. He’s okay with it. It’s sort of his fault for not being blunt, after all.

~

It’s an early autumn night when he hears the stupid rocks pelting on his windowsill from outside.

There’s no burglars in this side of town, and even if there were, they wouldn't make a loud noise about it, they’d just sneak inside like regular burglars, obviously.

He puts his slippers on to avoid the cold floor. He pushes his blinds up, and he’s expecting Kuroo, but Bokuto is standing there in nothing but a hoodie and owl earmuffs and a big, happy grin and--

“What are you doing in my yard?!” Akaashi hisses in a stage whisper out the window as soon as he manages to pry the thing open. Kuroo was the only one who knew his address, so why…

“Sorry! Kuroo gave me your address so I could visit you, since it was urgent?”

Akaashi checks his clock. “It’s 3:28 in the morning, Bokuto-san, how urgent could it be?”

Bokuto’s giving him those puppy dog eyes. “It’s super duper important! But i’ll be really fast, okay? I just need to say it now, or else I won’t get another minute of sleep if I don’t!”

“...Go on, then.”

He takes a deep breath. “I think I love you, Akaashi!” 

Akaashi blinks, feeling more awake by the second. “Wha--”

“I’ve liked you for a while, and sort of known what my tattoo meant for a while… Sorry… I just didn’t know what to say. It’s not like i have a name or something to base it off of, or anything… _you_ -related to go on. Volleyball is just a sport i play, and I felt like it could’ve been anyone and I could have got it wrong and really messed things up between us.” He frowns. “I still don’t know if you feel the same way, but Kuroo really encouraged me and i feel pretty certain about this! So I couldn't wait another minute for this!”

After a moment, he adds, “Actually, if I waited tomorrow, I for sure would have lost all my confidence. ...So what do you say?” He asks, hopeful.

Akaashi slams the window closed.

Bokuto may or may not have felt his entire heart shatter right there, dropping to his knees with dramatic (but understandable) posture. 

He’s only like that for thirty seconds tops, before Akaashi walks through the back door and runs to him, collapsing on the ground with him.

“Took you long enough,” he whispers, pulling at Bokuto’s cheeks and dragging him into an urgent kiss.

They meet halfway, and Akaashi is running those hands through his hair after moving them up past his cheeks, and Bokuto returns the kiss, and pulls Akaashi close by the hips, hands gliding around to his back as they melt together by the lips.

It’s short, sweet, and everything Akaashi’s ever wanted. 

When they part, Akaashi is smiling, but it drops into an almost-frown when he sees the distressed look on Bokuto’s face.

“Bokuto?” He asks, uncertain. 

“Are you sure about this? I mean, I’ve never seen your mark, so I don’t know, but I think I’m right with this--”

Akaashi smiles, and pulls at his nightshirt until it reveals the name scrawled on his skin. Bokuto’s eyes light up when he registers it, even in the dark, and his smile is almost blinding, lighting up the night.

“Wow,” He breathes, and Akaashi can only nod.

“So we’re doing this? We’re dating now? I can kiss you again, and stuff?” Bokuto asks hopefully, and Akaashi smiles. 

“Please do.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a line from Alina Baraz & Galimatias - Unfold
> 
> I had fun writing this! I'm lazy and stuff so I didn't do the rest of Bokuaka week 2, nor do i plan to finish any of the other prompts, but i've been wanting to write a soulmates au for a crazy long time now, and what better to do it with than Bokuaka since it's one of the prompts, anyway?
> 
> I didn't really give this much of a read-through, I'm sorry. I was skimming for mistakes but Its 4am and i've been working on this for like 15 hours lma o
> 
> Thanks for reading!! If you liked it, please give me Kudos or comments, It makes my day!
> 
> Come say hi 2 me on tumblr --> Tobioandthediamonds.tumblr.com


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